A car in the basement?

We are fortunate to have a good relationship with our neighbors whose family were the previous owners and residents of our house for many decades. We are always thrilled to hear stories of its history and see photos from the past.

This photo from around 1969 is particularly dramatic. They were digging out an entrance to the basement so they could park their car in the basement. You can also see the house had a front porch! Quite the difference now.

 

Temperatures tomorrow are going to be a high of 19 degrees so I am reminiscing to this past spring when the tulips were blooming out front.

And last winter with a fire to keep us warm.

 

The first room upstairs

Our main house is 2,570 square feet, but we currently live on just the first floor. The seven rooms is plenty of space for us at the moment, but we have started work on the second floor. When we moved in, we redid the wiring and heat for the first floor, but before we can move in upstairs we need to completely demo walls, add new insulation and windows, add heat and new wiring and add bathrooms.

We started on the room above the kitchen first as the wiring had already been competed there. It is a craft room and because of a lot of hard work from my dad came out fantastic. Check out the before, during and after.

There was a dropped ceiling in the room which once removed revealed a second lifted ceiling with beams. It opens up the space so much. You can see the grey door in the back left corner throughout the photos.

 

 

 

We have started to demo the room next door which will become Harrison’s bedroom.

How time flies ...

I can’t believe it has been almost two years since I posted last. It has been a busy twenty months. We marked the fourth year in our house, survived another winter and enjoyed another summer, finished our first upstairs room and welcomed Harrison into our family (and celebrated his first Birthday!).

I’m excited to share photos which offer a glimpse into the past two years. Looking through photos from the two years, it was great to see how much our children have grown, the many adventures we have shared and to see our house in the background of so many. With each year, each memory made and each update completed, it become so much more our home and an integral part of our lives. I’m sure it will come as no surprise to anyone who has tackled a complete house renovation, particularly with an older house, we have definitely had our moments of frustration and wishes that the process would move faster, but we are able to live happily in the parts we have renovated and take our time with the rest.

The fourth member of our family, Harrison, arrived May 29, 2018. He made himself at home quickly and Margaret was a great new big sister.

 

My maternity leave spanned the summer so we were able to enjoy lots of sunny days outside. David grew our garden and built a greenhouse with old windows and doors he had been collecting.

 

 

The Greenhouse

 

    

 

I love the possibilities for throwing parties at home and we celebrated in lots of different ways in the past two years.

Halloween “Pumpkin Fair” outside the barn

 

 1920’s 40th Birthday dinner in the barn

“Going on a bear hunt” 3rd Birthday party in the backyard

 

Lobster Bake in the barn

 

Butterfly 4th Birthday in the backyard

 

Peter Rabbit 1st Birthday by the garden and greenhouse

 

This past summer Margaret and Harrison helped David in the garden. We harvested lots of beautiful flowers, broccoli, tomatoes, blueberries and lots of raspberries! 

 

 

 

Our chickens continue to do well (the bees too!).

Spring time and upcoming new arrival!

Our long and cold winter has finally turned to spring! Flowers are blooming and we are loving being outside enjoying the warmer weather. David has been busy planting our vegetable garden and cleaning our backyard up from the winter. 

We installed two new bee hives early spring, but only a few days after they arrived, we had a visit from another local visitor: a bear! He destroyed one hive completely and damaged the second. You can see his nose impressions in the comb frames. We were able to salvage one hive which has now requeened itself and is doing well. We also have a new electric fence!

 

Our neighbor shared the following photo with us of our house from earlier this century. It was taken from the parking lot of the gas station next to our house. Our house had a porch on the front and no addition for the bathroom which currently exists.

We have been busy preparing for a new arrival - we are expecting our second child next week. He will be sharing our room for the first few months so we decided a minor make over was in order. If you remember from the photos of the house from when we first moved in - our room has bright teal trim and maritime murals on all the walls.

Since we are limited on time and had to live in the room - we decided on a cosmetic make over for now. My dad painted the walls a crisp, light grey and the trim a dark grey. We added bright yellow curtains, a new rug and artwork to the walls. The corner makes a welcoming home for the bassinet and baby items.

 

Left (view from french doors seen in before photo) 

Right (Window with mirror is window you see in before photo)

We have also started a major renovation project upstairs. We are converting the second room above the kitchen into a craft studio. You can see in the before photo that the room had old wood paneling and low ceilings.

The first step is demolition. All the paneling has been removed and the ceiling. When removing the dry wall ceiling, we discovered a second ceiling several feet higher. It was interesting to see the different wall papers that were revealed underneath.

 

Left Photo (almost the same angle as before photo)

Right Photo (window on the right is the window seen in previous photo)

More photos has the project continues. This room will be a great test for how the work on the rest of the second floor will go in the future.